How specific should my "main contribution" be?

Very specific. Instead of "We studied diabetes outcomes," write "We found that SGLT-2 inhibitors reduced 3-year HF hospitalization by 28% in CKD stage 3 patients in a propensity-matched cohort of 1,200." The more precise you are, the more accurately the AI can assess your manuscript tier and match it to journals that publish similar effect sizes and designs.

The AI recommended a journal I've never heard of for Tier 3. How do I know it's not predatory?

Check: (1) Is it indexed in PubMed/MEDLINE? (2) Is it listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) if it's OA? (3) Does it have a verifiable editorial board with real institutional affiliations? (4) Search Beall's List for the publisher name. If any check fails, skip it and ask for an alternative.

Is the impact factor information accurate?

The AI provides approximate, general knowledge-based estimates. Always verify the current Impact Factor via Journal Citation Reports (JCR/Clarivate) or the journal's own website before making decisions. IF values change annually.

My paper was rejected by 3 journals already. Should I lower my tier expectations?

List those journals in TRIED_JOURNALS. The AI will adjust the recommendations. Three rejections usually signal either a scope mismatch (submit to more specialized journals) or a methodology concern (reviewers raised the same issue — address it before resubmitting). The AI will flag this.

Can I submit to multiple journals at the same time?

No — simultaneous submission violates the ethical policies of virtually all peer-reviewed journals and can result in retraction if discovered. The AI's submission sequence recommendation (Tier 1 → 2 → 3, sequentially) is the ethically correct approach.

How do I prevent my cover letter from looking AI-generated?

Review the draft and: (1) Replace AI marker words — "delve", "nuanced", "robust", "leverage", "comprehensive" are statistically linked to AI authorship and editors increasingly recognize them. (2) Rewrite in your specific voice — mention your institution, the clinical problem that motivated this study, and why you are submitting to this journal now. (3) Replace vague claims ("this advances the field") with specific ones ("this is the first multicenter RCT to demonstrate X in Y population"). (4) Have a colleague read it before sending. Note: many journals now require authors to declare AI use in the cover letter.

Is the pre-submission safety check in Step 6 really necessary?

Yes — especially the ethics and registration items. Desk rejection for missing IRB statements or trial registration numbers is extremely common and entirely preventable. For RCTs: missing ClinicalTrials.gov registration is automatic rejection at NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, and BMJ. For all studies: missing COI disclosure is an ethics violation. The checklist takes under 10 minutes and prevents months of avoidable delay.

Journal Match & Submission Strategy -- medPrompt

Usage Guide

Fill in your study type, topic, and key findings.
Click AI Run — receive a ranked list of matching journals with tailored submission strategy.
Results appear in the chat — ask for more detail on any journal's scope, impact factor, or requirements.

Medical Research Assistant

Fill in variables and run directly with AI

Wiki

Choosing the wrong journal wastes months. Submitting to an out-of-scope journal — no matter how strong the work — results in desk rejection within days. Over-targeting a journal above your manuscript's tier results in repeated rejection cycles that exhaust authors and delay dissemination. This tool provides a structured, honest journal selection and submission strategy tailored to your specific manuscript.

The core output is a three-tier recommendation: Reach (aspirational), Target (realistic best fit), and Safe (high acceptance probability). The tier assessment is based on honest manuscript calibration — the tool explicitly avoids impact factor worship and instead evaluates scope alignment, study design match, audience fit, and prior citation patterns in the field. Each recommended journal comes with a scope alignment explanation.

A customized cover letter draft is generated for the Target journal. The draft highlights your study's key contribution, explains why it is appropriate for that journal's readership, and avoids the AI-signature vocabulary that editors now flag. You can request drafts for the Reach and Safe journals as well.

The tool includes a predatory journal warning for vulnerable fields. For any recommended open-access journal, a brief credibility check is noted: PubMed/MEDLINE indexing status, DOAJ listing, and publisher reputation. Researchers in high-predatory-risk fields (nursing, nutrition, alternative medicine) receive an explicit caution before submitting to unknown titles.

A pre-submission safety checklist is provided covering ethics approval, trial registration, COI disclosure, data availability statements, and author contribution statements. Missing any of these items is a common cause of desk rejection at major journals. The checklist is adapted to your manuscript type (RCT, observational study, systematic review, case report).

This tool works best when you provide a specific, quantified description of your main contribution rather than a general description. Include study design, population, sample size, and primary finding. The more precise the input, the more accurate the tier assessment and journal recommendations.

FAQ